Tag Archives: Irish family history

Rob Goodbody

What Industrial Heritage

On Heritage Week, renowned historical geographer, Rob Goodbody, discussed Ireland’s industrial heritage. It’s a truism that Ireland never had much industry to speak of, so does Ireland have an industrial heritage? Rob Goodbody takes us beyond manufacturing industry, and looks at the infrastructure set in place for a much larger Irish population in the past. He looks at the evidence in the Irish landscape of mining and quarrying, which challenges the idea that Ireland lacks natural resources. The evidence of our industrial past is visible in the landscape. Listen in to find out more.

Ray Gillespie

The house on Bunion Hill: an Irish census project

How do you write local history? In the past people worked within a world of family and community. For that reason, genealogy is a very important resource for the local historian but is often forgotten about, as local historians tend to concentrate on place rather than people.

The Prof. looked at one household in north Armagh in the 1901 census to see what the history of one family might tell us about the world in which they lived.

He concluded that genealogists need to become more historically minded, and historians need to pay more attention to genealogy.

Dr Bruce Durie has enjoyed two successful careers in different fields. He began his professional life as a biochemist/ pharmacologist. In 1977 he was awarded the IBRO/ UNESCO Fellowship as ‘Scotland’s most promising young neuroscientist.”

In the 90s, he moved into family history, and later completed a doctorate in History and Education. He set up and ran (until 2011) the post-graduate programme in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. Now an Honorary Fellow of Strathclyde, where he is developing a full-time Masters degree in Genealogical Studies, he also teaches Genealogy, Documents and Heraldry courses for the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scottish Studies Scholar Award, for 2016.

FF: Bruce, before we start, I did a little reading in preparation for this interview. I never knew that you were a neuro-scientist.

BD: Oh, that was a long time ago, when I had a brain.

FF: I had to smile, because it made me think of the old joke, you don’t have to be a brain-surgeon…

BD:(laughs) … but it helps! Yes, I won a prize as “Scotland’s most promising neuro-scientist”, and I spent three years in psychiatry, this side of the table! Where did it all go wrong, eh? (laughter).

Actually there’s an interesting point in there. I don’t have any evidence for this (laughs), but a number of us have speculated that biologists are disproportionately represented in Professional genealogy, it’s a desire to taxonomise,[1] and genealogists are comfortable with ambiguity, qualities that you don’t find in mathematicians, physicists, engineers and so on.

FF:So, how long have you been a genealogist, and when did you get started in genealogy?

BD: 20-odd years professionally, almost my whole life as an amateur.

FF:Tell me about the early years?

BD: I started when I was five years old. Do you remember, when we were kids, somebody would always give our parents a baby book for every child. It had an envelope where you could put the child’s first tooth, a lock of hair, and all of that. Inside the front cover of mine was a tree and no one had filled it in. So I went round pestering everybody in the family for dates, and places and names. Interestingly, one part of the family thought this was hilarious, but the other side went “ohhh, you don’t want to be looking into that son, you never know what you might find.” Exactly the two responses that we find to genealogy out in the wide-world, today.

What I discovered was, that nobody knew much, beyond my grandparents talking about their parents, and maybe their grandparents. There wasn’t very great detail – they just didn’t know names, dates and places . They said “We come from Devon”, or “We’ve always been in Fife” – that kind of thing, and some of it was conjectural. The best part of it though, was that my maternal grandfather, who didn’t want to talk much about his family, began to tell me stories that his grandfather had told him about the Crimean War [1853-56]. If you think about it, grandparents who were born about 1900 were brought up by parents who were Victorians and would have had Victorian values, and if you’re a Scottish Presbyterian, quite a lot of those come down to you anyway (laughs).

FF:You say ‘twenty-odd years’ as a professional genealogist: how odd have those years been?

BD: Well, being a professional genealogist is always odd, it’s continuously odd. You need to be able to deal with constant change. Do you remember back in the days when there was no training, and no real way of genealogists getting together? [Professional genealogists] used to pick up clients almost by chance.

I was fortunate, in that I was spending a lot of time in America, which I still do, and almost everyone said the same thing which was “we’re descended from Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots, William Wallace, etcetera. And I used to say “would you like me to find out how accurate that is for you.” So for the first ten years of my professional career, all my clients were overseas.

FF: And did you ever find anyone who was descended from one of the Bruces or William Wallace?

BD: (laughs) Everybody is descended from William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, or Robert the Bruce by some line or other. But there’s nobody called Stuart descended from Mary Queen of Scots, there’s nobody by the name of Bruce descended from Robert the Bruce, because those died out in the maleline. So to those who say, I can get my genealogy back to Charlemagne, I always say, “sure you can, but can you document it?”

FF: One of the projects that you’re most closely associated with, is the Masters in Genealogy in Strathclyde University.

BD:I suppose people first started to notice me about ten years ago when I started the first post-graduate professional Masters level course, in the University of Strathclyde.

FF:Why and how did you decide to set it up as a post-graduate-level course?

BD: Well let me answer the how of your question first.

I went looking for a training scheme or a qualification and I couldn’t find any. I was doing something else in Strathclyde at the time, and the Project came to an end. I was talking to one of the senior people in Strathclyde who said “what are we going to do with you then?” And I said, “well do you know there is no University teaching proper genealogy in the whole world”. And he said “gosh I was watching that on the telly last night. Looks fascinating. Off you go then.” So if he’d been watching the football, none of this would have happened. (laughter).

We started with £5,000 and six months to get it right. We were always going to have a Masters course, but we staged it. We put up a post-grad certificate, and the next year a post-graduate diploma, and two years after that a Masters. Originally they were actual physical classes in a classroom, but we developed online classes alongside. And eventually after four years we did away with the physical classes, and it was all done online. It immediately proved a massive success.

As for the reason we set it up as a Master’s course? Well, no undergraduate department would touch it. No one else could see the point, until I was introduced to a fabulous person in the Centre for Life Long Learning, and she said “this is excellent, let’s do it and embarrass them all.” (Laughter) It’s much easier to get a post-graduate course on the books than an undergraduate one. The other question people ask me is why is it an M.Sc. and not an M.A., and of course in Scotland and I think in Trinity [College Dublin] as well, an M.A. is an undergraduate degree.

FF: Exactly. Everyone has the right to apply for their M.A. within twelve months of graduating.

BD: Don’t you have to eat three dinners at high table or something?

FF:That’s no great hardship, especially when there’s good wine at the table. (laughter).

FF:So, tell me, what do you enjoy most about being a professional genealogist?

BD:The ability to dig into a whole range of primary source documents that most people don’t know exist. One of the things that disturbs me about watching undergraduate history students being taught, is that they hardly ever get to primary sources. Genealogists deal with nothing but primary sources, all the time. It’s an incredible buzz, especially if you’re digging into un-indexed records which nobody’s looked at for hundreds of years, until you blow the dust off.

There’s so much stuff locked up in archival boxes in various places that nobody ever gets to. The real killer for me was getting all the Retours – that’s the missing piece of the puzzle in Scottish genealogy, tracing where did all the land go.

FF:Can you explain what a Retour is.

BD:Sure. Up until 1868 in Scotland, a will or testament could only deal with moveable estate: cash, crops, furniture, knives and forks, pictures and so on. Immoveable estate was handled by a completely different process, formally called the Retours of Services of Heirs. They’re not available anywhere, easily, and yet there are entire genealogies locked up in there, that don’t appear in birth/ marriage/ death records. And they go from 1544 up to 1860s, when the system was changed.

[Bruce prepared the Retours Abbreviations for publication in three volumes] *They’re like telephone directories, each one over 800 pages in tiny print. You could stun a burglar with them, they’re huge. [laughter]

* www.brucedurie.co.uk/books

FF:So is that your area of specialization?

BD: Other people would say Teaching, writing, broadcasting, because that’s where they would tend to bump into me. What I like most is palaeography, getting into the old curly writing, and making sense of it. I must have a freak brain, because I find it very easy to read almost anything. (laughs).

But also I’m a major fan of Heraldry, often discounted as the ‘floral border’ around genealogy. But again, there are entire pedigrees bound up in coats of arms.

And because I’m specialised in that I advise people getting coats of arms legally registered in Scotland, re-matriculating old coats of arms, getting clans and families to find the right chief, and all those things.

FF:Indeed. Did you see the story this week, of what is supposedly a portrait of Shakespeare, his identity supposedly revealed in the little heraldic device underneath?

BD: First off, although Shakespeare did get arms for his father in 1596, it’s a far cry from what’s in the picture. I’ve seen the picture and to me it looks like a classical man holding a plant! It could be anybody. I think someone has found a good way to get a bit of publicity out of this.

FF:Can you give us a genealogy tip or method that you always recommend to people?

BD: Yes, and this is not only for overseas people, but in Scotland too. You cannot do Scottish genealogy from Ancestry, or Family Search or any of the commercial sites. Can’t do it. The reason is, the records are only available on [the website] Scotland’s People and related sites. Scotland won’t hand them over, we make too much money out of it, which is quite right! It drives the commercial providers absolutely crazy.

But hardly anybody knows these great sites exist, or how to use them. So it’s a mission of mine to go out there and say: it’s all here, you can get it, and it’s not difficult.

FF:Tell us about your role as Track leader for Scotland, in the British Institute?

BD: I want to show people there’s so much more to documents than just a name and a date. People often take just take the bare bones of a document, but in fact there’s a great more in there. Censuses are one of my particular interests, because there’s so much social and economic information buried in a census. There’s a column recording the number of rooms with windows in a house, and of course that’s a wonderful thing, because it tells you so much about living conditions. One of the exercises I do, is to take people from an 1861 Census, through all the [published] censuses, and up to the present day with a Google Maps aerial shot, and there’s the house, and you can see exactly the number of rooms it has.

Then helping people navigate in the LDS Library, and showing them a few “secret places.”

FF:What can people expect to take away with them, if they attend your course?

BD: It’s going to focus on how to find people, how to find places, and how to find inheritance records – and that’s a particularly interesting one.

FF: Do you have any good stories from inheritance records?

BD:Yes, quite a lot of the work that comes in to me, starts with a story that the house and land should have come down to my side of the family, but it went to the other lot, can we get it back? I always, always say to them from the beginning, there’s nothing and never was, just trust me on that one, but I’m happy to spend your money, finding out, and proving it to you. (laughs)

The best story I know was similar to the caseof Jarndyce vs Jarndyce , where the side of the family that *did*inherit the money, spent most of it fending off legal battles from the other side, so that by the time they got to the end of it, and it was clear that [title] was right, there was nothing left. And the only real property had been vested in one of the daughters, who was to stay in it as a life-renter until she married or died. She decided not to do the first, and didn’t do the second for a very long time. She outlived even some of her grand nieces and nephews, so at the end of it, there was absolutely nothing.

FF:Are there any peculiarities about land law in Scotland?

BD: Yes, Scotland was a feudal country until 2004, nobody owned land, it was all owned by the crown, and then there was a chain of heritable possession beneath that. So until recently, it was possible to trace land possession through this chain because every time land was sold or passed on after a death, there’s a piece of paper that tells us this, and this is where the Retours come from, and incredibly recondite system that generates a piece of paper every time the land changes hands, for 300 years. It made searching an absolute joy, because all changes had to be registered.

In this week’s newsletter we offer you more from Eneclann, and all that is going on in the world of Irish Family History. We include the Eneclann Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme 2014. We take a look how you can avoid completely missing out on The Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City in January 2015. Eneclann Archivist Gerard Byrne fills us in on Archives and Record Management at Eneclann, and lots more, enjoy

Christmas Gift Certificates

A commissioned family history gift certificate is a personal and memorable gift – the perfect present for that someone special. Unlike most gifts, it is unique to the person you give it to and their family, making it an ideal gift for Christmas. This year give your loved one the gift of working with the experts who discovered Obama and Tom Cruise’s Irish family history.Click here to purchase an Eneclann gift certificate.

Irish Fairies seek new homes for Christmas

Do you believe in the ancient Irish spirits, the Sidhe, also known as the ‘little folk’ or fairies? The parents ofSt. Laurence’s National School recently made contact with a community of the ‘Sidhe na Nollaig’ – Christmas Fairies, living in the Phoenix Park Dublin. They have endured for over 4,000 years, but are now looking to widen their horizons. Help an Irish fairy find a new home this Christmas. All proceeds go to St. Laurence’s National School, Chapelizod, Dublin.Click here to purchase.

Seeking tax relief for 2014

If you are an Irish taxpayer then you can invest in the Eneclann Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme (EII). Investing in an EII is one way to reduce your tax liability and the closing date for applications is the December 31st, 2014. Read all about how you can reduce your tax liability with Eneclann here.

Are you ready to take your research skills to the next level

Refresh your professional skills with the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Professional Management Conference, this January 2015.In January 2015 the APG have a Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City. Would you like to attend, but are just not in a position to travel? Here is an opportunity to virtually engage in CPD, and keep your professional skills up to date.click here.

Archives and Record Management

Eneclann is renowned for its work in research and genealogy, but we also provide archives and records management services to the public, private and semi-state sectors in Ireland and abroad. The department is staffed by professional archivists, all of whom hold post-graduate qualifications in archives and records management. So, what are these services we provide you may ask?find out here.

15th annual British Institute

In Sept. 2015 Eneclann’s Fiona Fitzsimons will be teaching at the 15th annual British Institute in Salt Lake City. Fiona will be in good company – the line-up for the event includes Else Churchill and Bruce Durie. If you would like to sign up for the course, or want to know more,read here.

Regular readers will remember that in June 2012, Eneclann and Ancestor Network won the tender to provide the Genealogy Advisory Service in the National Library and National Archives. We received a warm welcome from the Director of the National Library, for our “enhanced family history service.” One of the first overseas visitors that I met tracing her Irish roots, was Myriam Moran. Her Irish ancestors settled in Guatemala in the 1670s, and one of her ancestors was professor of Theology in the Royal University there. To read more click here

Genealogy Radio Show: episode 11

Our friend and colleague Lorna Moloney has really settled into her stride on The Genealogy Radio Show”, broadcast on Community Radio Corca Baiscinn. Listen here toepisode 12 Jennifer Woods from Queensland Australia–The quest for John Prendergast andepisode 13 Kay Caball, The Kerry Girls and the Earl Grey Scheme.

Christmas Delivery Dates

Don’t leave it too late! Have you been meaning to purchase some online publications with Eneclann before Christmas to keep you entertained over the holidays or perhaps you would like to buy a loved one a package to complete their Family History Research with an Eneclann expert, well now is the time, check out the lastdelivery dates before Christmas here.

Research Tip of the week

Each newsletter we offer you a research tip written by one of our expert researcher’s, in the hope that we can help you along your genealogy path.This week Eneclann’s Fiona Fitzsimons writes..Click here to view the tip.

A commissioned family history gift certificate is a personal and memorable gift – the perfect present for that someone special. Unlike most gifts, it is unique to the person you give it to and their family, making it an ideal gift for Christmas. This year give your loved one the gift of working with the experts who discovered Obama and Tom Cruise’s Irish family history.

This gift certificate entitles the recipient to consultations and research, custom built to your specifications. Please contact us at genealogy@eneclann.ie or by phone at +353 1 6710338 to arrange this.

See what our customers have to say:

‘I had the idea of commissioning Eneclann to research Dad’s family history as his seventieth birthday present…When I suggested it to him he said it would be absolutely fantastic…it was the best gift we could have given him!’Niav Gallagher, Dublin

‘Eneclann traced my father’s family history for his sixtieth birthday. What I liked about the research was that I wasn’t just finding facts, but understanding how people lived…My dad has got three brothers and a sister, so they all got copies and then my granddad had a look at it as well – they were delighted. I think it’s a lovely gift for a birthday or other celebration. It is lovely to see where you come from.’Katrina Mooney, Dublin

While the ancestries of Prince Albert II and his mother, Princess Grace , are well known, Research commissioned by Tourism Ireland and carried out by genealogy researcher Fiona Fitzsimons of Eneclann has revealed that Princess Charlene’s ancestors can be traced all the way back to the 1520s and to a prominent Dublin family called the Fagans.

Click on the link below and have a listen to a short clip of Fiona Fitzsimons of Eneclann who conducted the research on Riviera Radio

Fiona Fitzsimons Discovers the truth behind George Clooney’s Irish Family History

Using newly available records on www.findmypast.ie renowned genealogist Fiona Fitzsimons discovered Clooney’s Irish ancestors didn’t jump, but were pushed.Clooney’s Irish ancestors were small farmers from Windgap, co. Kilkenny. In the 1850s local farmers competed for land. This sometimes tipped-over into violence. New evidence proves that in 1852 Nicholas Clooney (George’s great x 2 grandfather) was violently assaulted. Months later he was harrased through the court system.

“In 1852 Nicholas Clooney suffered a real injustice. He decided shortly after to leave Ireland and settle in Kentucky. “The rest is history.” Says Fiona, Research showed that Nicholas’s widowed mother (George Clooney’s great x3 grandmother) remained behind in Ireland. “Now through a family connection and for the first time, we have photographs of the old Clooney house and farm taken in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The photos show a way of life now vanished. It’s closer in time, and probably also in terms of experience, to the life of the immigrant Clooneys.”

You can listen to Fiona’s interview on Morning IrelandRTÉ Radio 1 and the truth behind the research by clicking below.

UCC Irish Genealogy Summer School is a hit!

Eneclann Genealogy experts Fiona Fitzsimons and Brian Donovan both spoke at the UCC Irish Genealogy Summer School last week.”Ancestral Connections is going from strength to strength. Eneclann provides core lectures and Brian Donovan and Fiona Fitzsimons bring academic excellence to genealogical practice-based frameworks”by Lorna Moloney.Booking for the 2015 Summer School will open on 24th July, later this month.

Lunch time talks in the National Library of Ireland

This August at theNational Library of Ireland,Eneclann andAncestor Network will host a feast for family history fans! It’s the return of the Twentyx20 lunch-time talks. Each talk is a short introduction to a key area, source or research method in Irish family history. The Q&A session will give you direct access to the experts.

Information sessions on a broad range of Irish genealogy topics will be given by some of the top experts in the industry. The Eneclann duo, Fiona Fitzsimons and Brian Donovan will also be there

“The event has been set up to help genealogists and family historians at all levels and bring together people from around the world with Irish roots,” says BBNY Group founder, Bridget Bray.

Introductory and advanced sessions will focus on surname origins, genetics and genealogy, civil, church and military records. For those who really want to dig deep, there are expert sessions on the Registry of Deeds, and Irish sources for children in care 1840s to 1990s. The U.S.National Archives (NARA) will also make a rare appearance in Ireland, to introduce the use of U.S. immigration and Naturalization records.

In addition toEneclann, expert speakers at the event will include Tony Browne (local historian), Paul Cotter (surnames expert) Eileen O’ Duill (Civil rights expert), Lorna Moloney (U.C.C Genealogy Summer School & Merriman Research) and Paddy Waldron (Limerick/Clare Expert). Organisations present will include IARC, the LDS, NARA and Roots Ireland.The event has many experts who will be on hand to offer guidance and advice.

This two day event will take place inThe Strand Hotel, Limerick, Buy your ticket today and experience “The Genealogy Event 2014″

World War One Roadshow at Trinity College Dublin

Trinity College Dublin in partnership withRTÉ Radio One and theNational Library of Ireland is hosting a Family History Collections Day of World War One memorabilia this Saturday, July 12th where members of the public are invited to bring in family items, letters and mementos related to the war for authentication and archiving by a team of experts,

Paul Manzor fromEneclann and Aoife O’ Connor from findmypast will be there to provide research advice and guide you through the records of ancestors that served in World War 1

findmypast will provide free access throughout the day to all their World War 1 records. Don’t forget to pop over to both our stands and say hello!

It looks like it’s going to be one very eventful day. For more information and a full time-table of the day, click on the image.

Brian Mitchell publishes new book

Tracing Derry-Londonderry roots.

‘Londonderry’ sketch by John Nixon circa 1790

Brian Mitchell, the best-selling author of A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland, has a new book out, for anyone tracing their family history in the city and county of Derry/ Londonderry.Tracing Derry~Londonderry Roots was published in the U.S. earlier this year.

“Genealogy has great potential to reconnect Derry with its Diaspora and as a promotional tool to potential visitors and tour groups”, says Brian Mitchell. “Just recently I was communicating by email with Jim O’Reilly of Chicago who is one of 700 direct descendants of Charles Curran who emigrated from Brockagh (2 miles south of Eglinton), via Derry, to USA in 1865. This June they are holding a family reunion in Pittsburgh; the seed has been sown to visit Derry and their ancestral home in the future” Brian Mitchell,

Expert workshops for CPD conclude for the summer.

This last week the Expert workshops series concluded for the summer, with two workshops on genetic genealogy given by Dr. Gerard Corcoran. The series of Expert workshops for Continuous Professional Development began in April 2014.

Already we’ve held ten workshops, drawing on the expertise of our own GAS membership, as well as overseas speakers including Dr. Liz Rushen (Colonial Duchesses, Fair Game).

Monthly Workshops are held in Trinity College and the National Library of Ireland, both institutions with which Eneclann has a close association.

These free workshops are open to our own GAS membership, but also to other professional genealogists, enthusiasts and independent scholars.

We’re taking the month of August off, but the series will resume in September.

“Maeve and I would like to thank all our speakers who generously gave their time, energy and expertise. We’ve had a lot of fun in these first few months, and have built up a regular audience. We hope you’ve enjoyed the workshops as much as we have, and hope to see you again this Autumn” Fiona Fitzsimons.

“The CPD talks have been tremendously interesting and the workshop format has prompted a worthwhile discussion among attendees” Maeve Mullin

“The Expert Workshops are well worth the journey from Limerick. We have all tapped into new resources with the different speakers” Kay Caball

Chapelizod Art Project update

Debbie Chapman is keen to involve the two local schools in theChapelizod Art Project. She has already completed a workshop with the children of St. Patrick’s National School. This Monday Debbie will hold a free workshop with the children of St. Laurence’s National School. Chapelizod Bandroom,11am -12 pm, Monday 14th July.

DRAWING DAY (all ages) – Sat 19 July 2014, 2 – 5pm Meet at the Square in Chapelizod Village. Bring materials or some will be provided. Most suitable drawings will be chosen for inclusion in the Exhibition & Project Book in Sept/Oct 2014.

PHOTOGRAPHY (all ages) – email your photos of Chapelizod’s ‘Dereliction’ to info@debbiechapman.com by August 31st. Most suitable ones will be chosen by local photographer Motoko Fujita for inclusion in the Exhibition & Project Book in Sept/Oct 2014.

POETRY (all ages) – email your poetry or prose compositions to info@debbiechapman.com for inclusion in the Exhibition & Project Book in Sept/Oct 2014.

Research tip of the week

A quirk of registration

If you can’t find a record of birth in your family’s usual parish of residence, it may be because your ancestors gave birth away from home.Traditionally, many women returned to their mother’s house for assistance when they had their first child. The child may then be registered in their mother’s home parish, rather than the family’s usual place of residence. Another common instance in which a woman gave birth ‘away’ from home, was if she attended the county hospital.The county hospitals shared a campus with the workhouse, and from the 1850s many poor women used it as a ‘lying-in’ hospital. You can make this ‘quirk of registration’ work for you, by searching the baptismal registers of the parish, and from 1864 civil births by the Registrar’s District in which the workhouse campus was situated.

Clooney’s Irish ancestors were small farmers from Windgap, co. Kilkenny. In the 1850s local farmers competed for land. This sometimes tipped-over into violence. New evidence proves that in 1852 Nicholas Clooney (George’s great x 2 grandfather) was violently assaulted. Months later he was harrased through the court system.

“In 1852 Nicholas Clooney suffered a real injustice. He decided shortly after to leave Ireland and settle in Kentucky. The rest is history.” Says Fiona.

Research showed that Nicholas’s widowed mother (George Clooney’s great x3 grandmother) remained behind in Ireland. “Now through a family connection and for the first time, we have photographs of the old Clooney house and farm taken in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The photos show a way of life now vanished. It’s closer in time, and probably also in terms of experience, to the life of the immigrant Clooneys.”

Stuart Rosenblatt and the UCC Genealogy School

Ancestral Connections 2014 is an International Genealogy summer school developed by Lorna Moloney at ACE – University College Cork, it offers a programme of outstanding quality for those interested in tracing their Irish roots. All aspects of subjects are covered by a series of presentations and ‘hands on’ workshops given by a selection of Ireland’s leading genealogical lecturers and experts.Eneclann’s very own directors Fiona Fitzsimons & Brian Donovan will also be giving talks at the Summer school.

The Genealogy Event 2014

2014 recognises Limerick as the “City of Culture” and the 3rd weekend in August starts the “National Heritage Week” and what better way to celebrate both than with,

This two day event promises to share with you, information sessions on a broad range of Irish genealogy-related topics from some of the top experts in the industry, including Eneclann’s very own Research Experts Fiona Fitzsimons and Brian Donovan,

“The event has been set up to help genealogists and family historians at all levels and bring together people from around the world with Irish roots,” says BBNY Group founder, Bridget Bray.

Sessions will focus on civil and church records, immigration and passenger lists, military records, surname origins, using DNA, and resources available at Ireland’s National Library and National Archives.

In addition toEneclann, experts from Limerick Genealogy, Roots Ireland, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Irish Ancestry Research Centre (IARC),will be on hand to offer guidance and advice.

The Genealogy event has added a new conference session in partnership with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It’s of particular interest to anyone engaged in ‘reverse genealogy’ and trying to trace the descendants of ancestral relatives that left Ireland and settled overseas. Dorothy Dougherty, Programme director of the National Archives in New York City will be speaking about U.S. naturalisation records, Irish Famine records, and other key sources held by NARA.

This two day event will take place inThe Strand Hotel Co. Limerick, Buy your ticket today and experience “The Genealogy Event 2014″

Gerard has been involved in genetic genealogy for many years and has agreed to give two workshops on differing aspects of this fascinating subject.

The workshops will take place next week (beginning 30th June).

3pm on Thursday 3rd July, in Room 4050A on level 4, in the Arts Block, Trinity College Dublin, and

2pm on Saturday 5th July, in the Trustee’s Room, National Library of Ireland, Kildare St.

Genetic genealogy provides a glimmer of hope for our diaspora who are unsure of where in Ireland their ancestors came from.

Description:

Trinity workshop: Using genetic genealogy to break down the brick walls of traditional genealogy.

National Library workshop.

Connecting the Irish Diaspora using Genetic Genealogy

All workshops are free, but as spaces are limited, these are ticketed events.

Anyone who would like to attend this free workshop should apply for a ticket by writing toworkshop@eneclann.ie Tickets will be assigned on a first come basis.

Please let us know whether you will be at the Trinity College or the NLI event

Thanks, and hope to see you all there.

Chapelizod artist, Debbie Chapman

CHAPELIZOD DERELICTION

Debbie Chapman is a Chapelizod artist, and is running a project that will be exploring the issue of dereliction in Chapelizod, and the fact that so many buildings have been left empty and derelict, even while there’s a housing crisis.

Eneclann is providing historical research on who’s lived in the village of Chapelizod in the last 150 years.This is a Community Based Arts Project responding to the large number of derelict buildings in Chapelizod Village, Dublin and it’s environs. Debbie will be drawing on the real stories of past lives as the inspiration for her art.Recently, Dublin council bought a derelict site with ruined houses from the early 1700s, to redevelop. The council has put a hoarding up outside these houses, and Debbie Chapman has been asked to design and paint the hoarding.

The purpose of this project is to explore the impact of decline and deterioration of historic buildings at the centre of Chapelizod’s village and through shared artistic practice create a strong sense of place within the current community.

The intended outputs of the project are to create artistic interventions instilled with community consciousness and deliver a series of community arts events, which will have a positive impact on local people, affected by the decline in their immediate environment.

Large wooden cut-outs with painted images from the past will be attached to the hoarding.

The project will culminate in a collaborative Visual Arts Exhibition to be held in the village accompanied by a Project Book and a Public Art Installation in Sept/Oct 2014.

The project, is led by artist Debbie Chapman, and is funded by Dublin City Council, Ballyfermot/Chapelizod Partnership and Eneclann.

We will provide you with regular updates over the summer, to track the project’s progress which we will feature in our newsletters and also on ourwebsite blog.

Latest downloads available at Eneclann

We now have 11 new download releases available on our website.

11 new download conversions available, for as little as€8.10,including

History Ireland Magazine, “Kindred Lines”

This month Fiona writes about what records survive to trace your ancestors involved in WWI

“Irish involvement in the First World War is contentious, and historians cannot agree on either the numbers of Irish engaged in the conflict, or the number of Irish war dead. Official estimates are 210,000 mobilised and 49,300 dead, but these figures are open to challenge.

Research Tip of the Week!

Most researchers tracing an Irish WWI ancestor will start with the Army Service Records, the largest of all the British Services. Less than half of all service records actually survive, because of archival destruction during the London Blitz in 1940/41.

From the original 6 ½ million+ service records, only 3 million now survive. There are however several other sources that can help you bridge this gap in the British Army Service records.

Everyone who served overseas was entitled to the British and Victory (Campaign) medals. A lesser number of people also received awards for gallantry or distinguished service.

The National Archives U.K. has over 5 million records for British Army Medal index cards 1914-1920.